08/16

The re-publication of Candace Cochrane’s Outport:The Soul of Newfoundland by Flanker Press is a timely reflection of the passage of a way of life that has now all but disappeared. First published in 1981 when much of what is represented in the book was easily found an hours drive outside the overpass, is now a distant and, for many, forgotten memory.

This was our culture, the isolation and privation that marked much of ourselves to the outside world as represented in our cultural output. It was, as the photographs themselves a black and white existence. Townies vs Baymen, Catholics vs Protestants, Merchants vs Fishermen, Liberals vs Tories. The stark divide with its many fault lines made for great storytelling and comedy, and it also framed our claim as a distinct society. The Quebecois had their language, but we could advance the Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

The way forward holds the siren’s song of prosperity long thought to forever to remain just beyond our grasp. Within that future though is the dissolution of our “pureness”, we are now rapidly evolving into simply another tiny market segment content in our economic future and the pleasures of consumerism.

We are increasingly urban society and continue to repeat the follies made forty years ago by cities across Canada.  Just as Andy Wells and his cronies gutted the downtown with the misery that was and is Atlantic Place. The current council promotes the duplication of faceless sprawl that mainland cities are now attempting to halt and reverse.

As the province embarks on the expensive Torbay by-pass road to alleviate traffic the towns just beyond are repeating the problem by allowing ribbon development on the subsequent stretch of highway.

The character of Newfoundland as evidenced in Cochrane’s book is gone. Do we have anything to replace it other than the pale reflection of the tourist department’s version?